Green Commerce Blog

REcentre presents several best practices from the Netherlands and abroad, and compares these to eight projects from Maastricht and the region. The common factor is that it is not the industry that assumes the role of initiator, but individuals and communities that tend to give the impetus for sustainable change. For REcentre this led to the decision to emphasize the importance of social innovation as an agent for sustainability in the exhibition Re-Action!

REcentre – centre for sustainable design is a knowledge and promotion centre propelling the development of sustainable design in the Meuse-Rhine Euregion, consisting of Belgian and Dutch Limburg, Regio Aachen and Liège.

REcentre will create an expertise cluster in sustainable design within the Meuse-Rhine Euregion. By setting up projects together with designers, schools, companies and public institutions REcentre will show how sustainability can become real and what role design can take in this.

During the midissage, that took place on the 18th of September 2011, Kate Bull, co-founder of The People's Supermarket (UK), spoke about the importance of social innovation as a catalyst for sustainability. The People's Supermarket is a sustainable supermarket that shows an alternative, food buying network of affordable, high quality and healthy food producers. The members of the supermarket pay an annual contribution and get a reduction on their purchases and control in the policy. The members are also considered to work there minimum half a day per month. The People's Supermarket received this year an Ethical Award from the British newspaper The Observer.

REcentre also publishes sustainable success stories from companies active in diverse sectors (from coffee to chocolate, from radiators to chemistry,...) out of the Meuse-Rhine Euregion. They all have the same vision: sustainability is an economic necessity! This publication showcases good examples of embedding sustainability in the company's. See Sustainable Success Stories.